tip. Once fertilised, the plant produces dry seeds pods, known as capsules, measuring by . Each capsule contains oval-shaped, wingless seeds. Seeds measure in length, which is comparatively large for an orchid. This species looks similar to Vanilla imperialis but can distinguished by a series of scales on the lip and purple blotches rather than lines on the flower. Etymology The generic name Vanilla comes from the Spanish word vanilla, meaning "little pod", referring to the plant's seed pods. The epithet polylepis comes from Greek, combining the prefix 'poly', meaning "many, with lepis meaning "scale". Polylepis refers to the rows of scales found on the labellum, which distinguish it from other species in the genus. Habitat and ecology V. polylepis grows in various humid forest habitats between such as swamp forests, riverine forests, forested ravines and at the edges of evergreen forests. They occasionally grow in humid, scrubby woodland. They are also thermophiles, meaning that they favour warm conditions. V. polylepis is a hemiepiphyte. This means it begins life as a free-standing plant on the forest floor but when it comes into contact with a tree or boulder it detaches itself from the soil and uses the tree/boulder as structure upon which to grow. Despite the popularity of the genus and its commercial value, many other aspects of Vanilla ecology remain unknown. Pollination in the wild is poorly understood and so far no natural pollinators have been definitively identified for any of the African Vanilla species. The American species Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla pompona have been observed being pollinated by euglossine orchid bees. As well as being attracted to the flower's fragrance, Vanilla may be attracting pollinators by mimicking other nectar-producing flowers. V. polylepis flowers so infrequently that natural pollination events have never been observed. However, its morphological similarity to Vanilla planifolia may suggest that it too is pollinated by a bee, albeit from a different group of bees, as euglossine bees are restricted to the Americas. Many orchids form symbiotic relationships with soil fungi in order to obtain the nutrients that they cannot synthesise themselves (mycoheterotrophy). Relationships with fungi in Vanilla are not well studied but they are closely related to mycoheterotrophic lineages, like Pseudovanilla, and may therefore also form some kind of relationship with these fungi. Distribution V. polylepis has a large distribution compared to many orchids, being found throughout tropical Africa. Its distribution forms a band across